Life in Canada

First pictures than text Bilder sagen mehr als Worte!...erklaerung spaeter!

2007-05-31T20:45:00.002-04:00

View on Crowley lake at 6am in the morning / Crowley lake um 6 Uhr morgens

My biggest perch so far (out of Crowley) 35cm / meine groesseten gefangenen Barsche!

The two biggest with the proud fisherman / Der stolze Fischer!

Bearpaws from a huge bear near Dorothy lake out of Sudbury
Spuren eine grossen Baeren in der naehe von Dorothy lake

Bear mother with three cups caught by the MNR
Mama Baer und drei kleine Junge gefangen vom MNR

Ok, the story after all these pics follows as fast as possible.
So, die Geschichten hinter den Bildern kommen spaeter...

C ya! Dre

Wow, long time no see

2007-05-24T18:02:00.000-04:00

Hey folks,

It has been a long time since I wrote the last time. Well, here are some reasons why. Snow is gone and summer started right away. Kinda funny when you are used to a slow change in weather with a lot of rain in between the cold weather and the summer. Anyways, this had some major consequences for my time schedule. I finished teaching and classes in april and fell into fieldwork imideatly, prepared or not. Right now I'm working on my lakes (Camp, Crowley and Linton). I'm finally successful in fishing. Ok, ok, its kinda cheating since I use nets and not fishing rots. But it still works fine. This is the first step of my first field season. The next months will be pretty busy with work, so I will probably write the next time sometime in the fall.... just kidding. Right now I am doing population estimates of my lakes. Meaning catching fish, marking them and throwing them back in again hoping to catch'em again. And yes, they are stupid enough to get caught more than twice! After that, there will be some other things that I'll have to test later this summer.
Ok, whats new since the last time anyways? Well, the picture of the Lizzard on the right site is my new pet. His name is Gizmo and he is a Leopard Gecko. He's a very nice little bugger.
I got him from a guy at school who raised them as a project and sold them, so I got him cheap and he has a nice new home. :-)
Well, what else happened... We have been on a small roadtrip for a weekend a bit up north to see real size trees and more lakes...yes they are never ending here.
And then the amazing part of going over these Highways up north here. You just go through forest here, for miles and miles. Awesome. I'll attach some pictures later. I still haven't looked trough most of them, so I don't know what they are like. I'll go through them this wekend and post some here. The only disadvantage of summer is, that the bugs are out now and that meens you have to shield yourself agains them. Whoever has been in Scotland and had to deal with the migges (Geli ;-) ) there, should be warned. The bugs here are around all day and everywhere where there is some bit of water. So nearly everywhere. And if you let them, they'll eat you alive. So until it is either getting cold again or until there is enough wind, you have to deal with them.
ok, i gotta cook now, I am starving. Oh yes, I got a very small barbeque grill so I am bbq-ing prety often at the moment. Its pretty convenient and roasted mushrooms with Feta are so delicious!!!

Ok, C ya soon

Dre

Deutsch version: Sorry Leute, ich werd schnellst moeglich eine deutsch version anhaengen, habe aber gerade nicht die Zeit dazu. Hoffentlich am Wochenende. Habt etwas Gedult bitte, oder :Lernt Englisch!! Scherz. ;-)
Bis bald

Learning to fly Part 2!!! ( Eating snow)

2007-03-11T14:45:00.000-04:00

Weekend, wind and snow! Perfect! We went over to Andrew and had an awesome day on the lake (trying to) fly kites and kiteski! It worked out pretty well. Except, that the bigger kite Andrew wanted to hook me onto scared me too much with his power to try and take it for a spin with a snowboard. So Getting dragged with the big one without a board, and the trying to get a feeling with the snowboard with a smaller kite! Fun for hours. First pic shows me sitting on the ground getting used to fly a 6.5spm kite at moderate winds. It lifts you up the ground when you are not doing the right thing... Great. Well After that I switched to a snowboard under my feet instead of getting my ass dragged over the wet snow, but with a smaller kite. One step after an other, eh? Well, after a few times back and forth I needed a break, so Sarah took over. You get pretty exhausted doing this sport, and what happens , when you just fell, .... oh well, just have a look at the last pic. You look kinda stupid with your face dragged through the snow. :-)
Anyways its getting better and I hope I get a few more chance to hit the snow until it is getting too warm.

btw. The guy flying the blue kite is Andrew. Flying is the right word, cause he was barely ever touching the ground.

Hey ihrs. Yup, ich hab momentan ne Ersatzdroge fuer Windsurfen gefunden. Bin nur noch nicht wirklich sehr gut und die Kraft dieser Kites floesst mir immer noch ziemlichen Respekt ein. Naja, wir waren dieses Wochenede mal wieder draussen und Andrew, dem die ganzen Kites gehoeren, die ihr hier seht, Hat uns noch mal mit ihnen spielen...ok, kaempfen lassen. Meine ersten Versuche waren dann auch mal gleich am "richtigen" Kite, (6.5qm) aber ohne Snowboard. Schon lustig wenn man auf seinem Hintern ueber den Schnee hoppelt. Naja, um dann doch mal das Gesaess zu schonen, bin ich dann auf nen kleineren Trainingskite umgestiegen um mal auszuprobieren, wie es sich so mit der Kontrolle von Snowboard und Kite macht. Ging eigentlich ueberaschend gut, nur das man ganz schoen lustig aussieht, wenn man mal verkanntet und auf dem Bauch ueber den Schnee gezogen wird. ( wie im letzten Bild zu sehen. :-) ) Sarah hat es dieses mal dann auch versucht und hat mit dem Trainingskite auch ne menge Spass gehabt. Ich hoffe wir kommen noch ein paar mal raus, bevor es zu warm wird.

Learning to fly - Kiting in winter

2007-03-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

Wohoo, that was fun! Even though I didn't get to use my skis, the wind was awesome and even a 2.5sqm kite can lift me into the air. Andrew is way better. He took me out today and showed me how to Kiteski! Man, I have to go again, thats awesome. Soooo much fun! Thanks Andrew for a great afternoon out!

Wow, das war mal lustig. Im Winter mit nem Drachen ueber den See! Naja, ich war mehr so auf einer Stelle. Hatte nicht die richtigen Skier. Aber Spass war es alle mal. Springen und erst mal and den Drachen gewoehnen. Der Wind war ziemlich stark, so dass mich sogar der Anfaenger-Kite mit 2.5spm durch die Gegend ziehen konnte. Das naechste mal krieg ich dann auch Skier geliehen! Dann gehts ab ueber den See! Wohoo! Bis dahin, hier schon mal die ersten Beweisfotos!

Finally more snow!!! Endlich mehr Schnee!!!

2007-03-03T20:26:00.000-05:00

Alright alright, I know, its not a lot of snow, but come on! We got 25cm, the trails are open and we have nice weather to go skiing. And if you are lucky, you find creatures like the one in the first picture on the trails. Seems to be some kind of Yeti, but from somewhere way south....
Well, we had a great day outside with Sarah, The "Trinidad Yeti" (aka Charles) and me! It was great, only that the snow stuck too much to the skis, what forced me a few times to cool down...
O.k., if you have not been yet, get out and enjoy the snow while you can! It'll soon be over!

Hey ihr! Hab gehoert in deutschland ist es ziemlich warm! Hier ist es auch endlich wieder so warm geworden, dass Schnee fallen konnte! Und der kam dann auch reichlich. Auch wenn mir hier alle erzaehlen wollen, dass 25cm nix besonderes in einer Nacht sind. Wie auch immer, ich hab heute mal den Schnee genutzt und bin mal auf die Trails raus! War echt nett nur das mich die zehn Kilometer Runde dann doch ganz gut geschafft hat. Vor allem wenn man mit dem "Trinidad Yeti" (aka Charles erstes Bild) und Sarah unterwegs ist, die das beide schon ihr Leben lang machen. Jetzt hab ich Muskelkater und muss mich erst mal wieder erhohlen. macht aber einen riesigen Spass und Schnee ist doch was feines!
Bis bald mal!

Proof for the "On Sudbury" article oder was man so im Winter hier treibt!

2007-02-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

So yes, seems like I start to become a real Canadian. Funny as it is, but I really enjoy the cold weather, the snow and the ice. I learn to live with facts, that starting your car in before scratching the ice and snow off is not unusual but essential and that big cracks in ice on lakes don't mean that the ice is not save. My friend here have a lot of fun seeing me shriek every time I here the ice cracking under me. Kind of foolish, I admit, since I know that the ice is nearly half a meter thick and cars drive on it. But anyways, I enjoy being outside. Skiing, on lakes or trails is fun too and the fishing is kind of funny. It is really like in the article: You sit over a whole in the ice and wait. In the cold. (-20 degree and below) Although I haven't been lucky yet, I don't give up. Its fun being out here with some guys just having some fun.

Es scheint als ob ich langsam wirklich zum Kanadier mutiere. Ich mag die Kaelte hier mit Schnee und Eis. Ich musste nur lernen, dass es keine Suende ist, sein Auto zu starten, bevor man anfaengt, es von Eis und Schnee zu befreien, sondern eine unablaessige Notwendigkeit. Man kann sich das nicht wirklich vorstellen, aber bei -30 grad braucht jedes Auto eine Vorwaermphase.
Des weiteren machen sich meine Leute hier immer wieder ueber mich lustig, wenn ich mal wieder zusammenzucke, weil das Eis unter mir krackt. Es ist hier ganz normal, dass die Seen risse und spalten haben, die teilweise beachtenswerte Masse annnehmen. Vor allem macht man sich dann gut laecherlich, wenn das Eis, was gerade geknackt hat sowieso etwa einen halben Meter dick ist und so schnell nicht mehr nachgiebt. Sogar Autos fahren hier auf den Seen. (Das erste Foto zeigt uebrigens Ravvy, mein Auto auf Panache lake).
Draussens sein ist da schon was feines. Ich mag die Wildniss hier gerne und JA, Eisfischen ist wirklich so, wie in dem Artikel. Man bohrt ein Loch ins Eis, haengt seine Angel mit Koeder daruebe und hofft das was unter dem Eis vorbei schwimmt und in den Koeder beisst. Ich hab bis jetzt noch kein Glueck gehabt, aber es ist immer eine schoene Zeit, raus zu kommen und die Landschaft zu geniessen. Meistens ist das Angel sowieso mit anderen Aktivitaeten verbunden, wie Skiifahren zum spot und dann ist das bohren des Lochs/der Loecher sowieso schon Arbeit genug zum aufwaermen. Und erfolgreich war ich auch noch nicht. Werd es aber weiter versuchen und falls ich dann doch endlich mal ne Forelle fangen sollte, werd ich das hier posten! Bis bald dann mal!

C ya all!

Andy

P.S.: I'll try to keep this format up in this blog. I'll add Pictures in the text and the text will be first English, then German /Ich versuch das Format so aufrecht zu halten wie ich es jetzt hier angefangen hab. Bilder im Text und zuerst englischer Text und dann deutscher. Die texte koennen von einander abweichen, fuer alle die, die beide Sprachen verstehen, da ich im deutschen manche Sachen einfach mehr erklaeren werde.

Living in Sudbury

2007-02-24T13:52:00.000-05:00

I know I had this one on my old blog, but just to get started, here it is again!

On Sudbury,

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you live in Sudbury. If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May,you live in Sudbury. If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you live in Sudbury. If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you live in Sudbury. If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Sudbury. If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in Sudbury.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE SUDBURYAN:

1. "Vacation" means going South past Toronto for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" and then back again in the same day

5. You can drive 110 km/h through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

6. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

7. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

8. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

9. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

10. Down South to you means Toronto.

11. Your 1st of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

12. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

13. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

14. You actually understand all these jokes!

Fuer alle die das halbwegs verstandenden haben, die antwortauf die Frage: Stimmt das? Yup!

Schoenen Tag noch und bis bald!